WE is diving into some provocative issues, including the death penalty and racial politics, with its first scripted series, The Divide.

The drama, due Wednesday at 8 p.m., focuses on two white men facing capital punishment after being convicted of murdering a black family. It follows two people on different sides of the case: Christine Rosa (Marin Ireland, Homeland), a white caseworker working for an agency that seeks to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, and Adam Page (Damon Gupton, Prime Suspect), a black district attorney with political ambitions.

Co-creator Tony Goldwyn, who plays the president on ABC's Scandal, acknowledges that The Divide traffics in highly charged topics but says they are worth exploring.

"It was scary in a great way. We wanted to do it honestly ... telling the truth and not being preachy," says Goldwyn, who directed 2010's Conviction, which also examined issues surrounding wrongful convictions.

He and co-creator Richard LaGravenese (Behind the Candelabra) sought to create complex characters to explore challenging moral issues. "In our story, everyone has moments where we ennoble them, and yet, they are profoundly flawed."

They initially sold The Divide to AMC, home of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but the network suggested running it on sister network WE, known more for reality fare such as Bridezillas and reruns of Law & Order. The show's creators say the network described it as an opportunity to do for WE what Mad Men did for AMC, which was a movie channel.

Goldwyn says that the legal elements will appeal to WE's largely female audience and that the series can attract new viewers to the network.

"The WE audience watches a lot of crime shows. ... I think the bulk of that audience is going to go, 'Wow, this is cool! I like my reality shows, I like Law & Order, but this is really provocative," he says. "And I think it's also going to broaden WE's audience. I know people who go, 'I never watch WE, but I'm going to watch this."

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